NUMBER ONE
Woah! Here we are!
Hey you. How’s it going? Well ain’t it just the way. Me? Oh yeah I’m good thanks. A bit YOU KNOW but other than that.
This? I’m not 100% sure but I think I’ll share some things that I think are good and maybe you will too. Things like, food, art, movies, TV, books (must read more books), plays, THOUGHTS THAT I HAD. General culture.
Thanks for being interested. I love you. Yeah you. Why not. I’ve got a lot of love to give.
THINGS I THINK ARE GOOD THIS WEEK
a green pasta I made yesterday
Yesterday I made a green pasta sauce that had no bussiness being as delicious as it was. It was bright, it was fresh, it was sweet, it had very energizing pops of saltiness. It was heavily influenced by a Molly Baz recipe I read but didn’t have all the ingredients for.
Here’s how I made it and how you could make it if you wanted to make it.
Warm through some frozen peas (iydk frozen peas are already cooked so they don’t need cooking they just need defrosting).
Throw them in a blender (BUT HOLD A HANDFUL BACK) with some basil/mint/oregano/any other soft (not woody) herb you have growing in your ktichen/courtyard/garden/windowsill (note: there is no feeling more smug than using homegrown herbs. It’s so easy. Buy a basil plant for £1 and then stick it in a bigger pot and before you know it you have so. much. basil.)
Also throw some oil (olive if you’re rich), some sort of nut (I found some pistachos in my cupboard because I’m rich?), some garlic (I fried mine to take the edge off) and the juice (and rind if you cba) of a lemon into the blender
WHILST THIS IS HAPPENING absolutely fuck the vegetarianess of this recipe by throwing some pancetta in a frying pan (optional). You know what, crispy capers would serve the same purpose and no pigs would die. Pigs are as smart as dogs and if anyone ate my dog I would seriously consider homicide but I will occasionally eat a pig so riddle me that, human pysche.
WHILST THIS IS HAPPENING cook some pasta (I used buccatini because I’m rich?) but any long (or fuck it who cares, short) pasta will do.
Blitz the blender bussiness until its vibrant green and exciting.
Throw that on the pasta and add some pasta water, some parm, and something creamy like creme fraiche if you want to fuck the vegan-ness (veganity?) of it all.
Top it with some peas that you reserved, the pancetta and some pisatchios that you threw into the pancetta fat to toast because you’re an animal.
That’s it. Believe me when I tell you it really was very, very tasty.
Did I take a picture? No! Because I made it yesterday and only decided to start a substack today!
a poet I have just discovered
Hey have you guys heard of Hera Linsday Bird?! If so, good for you. If not, let me tell you. She’s good. Oh man she’s good. She’s funny, she’s surprising, she’s making us feel SEEN and HEARD. She’s reached a hand through the page/screen and she’s wrapped her fingers around this heart of mine.
(a shout out here to Eliot Salt who introduced me and my new love Hera Lindsay Bird (see above)).
Here is a poem she wrote which is my favourite
a film I saw which I didn’t dig
Inside Out 2. They stretched the metaphor too far guys. They stretched it too far.
a film I saw again which I dug so hard
Ladybird! This just in. Ladybird is a perfect movie! If you need something to watch which is going to make you laugh and cry and think and fall in love with Timmy Chals all over again (but this time because you hate him) then ermegerd this is the movie. I forgot how good it was. It also really soothes the Sondheim nerd who lives in my guts and only comes out when I am around very speific people or in very specific circumstances (like watching this film).
!!!!!FUN FACT ALERT!!!! Sonheim’s first stab at Merrily We Roll Along (the show that the high school kids put on in Ladybird) was a huge flop on Broadway. It was famously disastrous. There’s a great 2016 documentary about it actually called Best Worst Thing that Ever Could Have Happened. Anyway Stevey Sondy did a big rewrite and remounted the show at THE LEICESTER HAYMARKET THEATRE. That’s right. The version of MWRA that everyone knows at loves today was born in a shit city in the East Midlands of England (I can say that cause I grew up there).
Finally here is a poem I wrote
Lido
I watched a video of me diving into a lido
Five times on repeat
And then the next day and the next
There’s barely a splash
Such a smooth dive!
Such perfectly pointed toes!
When I emerge from the water
I do a thumbs up
Like a dad doing a thumbs up
But he has forgotten what thumbs are
Like your brother doing a thumbs up
But he doesn’t even have thumbs
All of which is to say
I am very pleased with myself
and the fact that I manage to disappear
under the water
and barely make a sound.
Goodbye for now!
Woah, woah, woah that’s number one over with! How are you feeling? I’m feeling a bit exposed but also like we had fun (did we have fun?).
Take care out there everyone. The world is so beautiful but the world can be cruel.
Two forgotten thumbs way up
We had fun.